After a two-year hiatus, the state government is now ready to implement its plan to recruit teachers in state-run colleges on a contract basis. Nearly 500 posts lying vacant in 17 colleges will be filled in this process.

Under the new system, teachers will be appointed on a one-year contract and will draw a salary of Rs 12,000 approximately. The plan had been put in the backburner nearly two years ago after anti-Left teachers’ lobbies opposed the move. The higher education department is now drawing up a list of the vacant posts.

“We are determining the number of teachers required for the various departments of each college. Recruitment will start as soon as we finish preparing the list,” said a senior official in the higher education department.

Initially posts in the district colleges will be filled up, where the number of vacancies is much higher than in the city colleges. Posts in colleges like Presidency, Maulana Azad, Bethune and Brabourne — which have fewer vacant posts — will be filled later.

The All Bengal State Government College Teachers’ Association, however, has strongly opposed the decision and also threatened to launch an agitation if the government went ahead with its plan of recruiting teachers on contract for filling up vacancies against any sanctioned posts.

“The government had earlier promised to give appointments on contract only if colleges required teachers more than their sanctioned posts. The quality of education will be affected if teachers are recruited on contract for sanctioned posts,” said association general secretary Pradip Dutta.

According to Dutta, teachers are also worried about a government plan to restrict the number of permanent teaching posts in the state-run colleges. The government is believed to have initiated a move by which a college will be allotted a maximum of seven teaching posts for a science subject and four for the humanities.

According to the government’s proposal, if a college has four permanent teachers in a particular science subject, the remaining three posts will be filled with teachers recruited on contract.